Wander... Checklist, advice?

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I put on some cheap tires a while back that are slightly taller and more narrow. After swapping the tires I have a more noticeable wander, especially at higher speeds; eg, 70. (These tires don't have a symetric tread pattern btw - Kuhmo Power Star 785's. Grooves all go one direction.) I had an alighment done about about 6mos before and the difference was immediate when the tires went on, so an alignment shouldn't be the problem. I knew the struts needed to be replaced and I've done the rears and will do the fronts soon. I figure the ball joints should be replaced as well since they're basically letting the control arms flop around when the car shifts from side to side. So, my question is what other items would most likely contribute to or fix this? The steering is fairly responsive, so I don't plan to replace the tie rod ends. Would ball joints alone probably fix this or should I look for a bushing kit, etc. The rear ball joints are in horrible condition, but I haven't checked the fronts. The rear struts made the car more stable in the corners, but had no effect on the wander. Right now I'm thinking definitely rear CA's or BJ's in addition to regular maintenance - front struts. Just want to be sure I'm not leaving anything critical out. Thanks

[Oldblueaccord]

Standard front end check,

1: jack up one side of the car until the one tire is off the ground. The other tire must be on the ground still. I use the jacking point under the doors.

2: grab the tire in the air at the 3 and 9 o clock postion and shake/rock back and forth. slow at first. might need someone to help look underneath. This checks tie-rods,steering rack etc. start kinda slow and work your way up a little harder. Your looking for loosness. Use common sense of course the steering wheel will move or the other tire may move if you shake the shit outta it.

3: Grab the tire 12 and 6 o clock. Rock back and fourth.This checks the wheel bearing and ball joints and upper links.

4: this check might show ball joints/upper link a little better. Use a pry bar under the tire at the 6 o clock pos. pry up look for slop looseness while prying.


This is your basic "front end check" any good mechanic should know. It works for all makes and models of cars

Thats the canned reply.

Could possibly be your tires. The ones with the solid bar all around the tire usually in the middle I think wander some and highway speeds on FWD cars. My observation of course.

If it pulls on side all the time its the alignment or a worn part making the alignment off. If it goes left then right down the road its a ball joint usually the upper. The lowers dont seem to feel as bad I just replaced a nasty one on may car but it handled well. Only on small stutter bumps at highway speed it felt like the strut was blown and changing it did little.



wp

[T-Funk]

i had serious wander a while back
first i did the rear struts with tokicos, made my back end stop wanting to slip out on traffic circles at high speed
then upper control arm drivers side cause it was knocking
then the front struts with tokicos (all 4 were blown and i knew it) helped a good amount
realized i had front broken springs, replaced those helped even more
then got a horrible squeek which was drivers lower ball joint so did that and replaced my axle while i had it up cause the cv started clicking and now it drives very nice :)

was waiting on an alignment since i kept fixing shit but now i dont even think i need one

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I got the rear control arms in today. Big difference. Handling is much more responsive, without the lag or as much roll from side to side. I knew they were pretty much shot, but I didn't think it would be such a noticeable difference. There is basically zero wander no at speed. Amazing... Highly recommend since these apparently fail quite often and will help stabilize the vehicle. Oldblueaccord, I did do the clock checks around the wheels. The rears obviously rocked vertically before the control arms, but were stable horizontally. No rocking now. The fronts didn't rock vertically, which is good b/c I didn't wanna replace more ball joints. They did rock a little horizontally, so I think the tie rods are worn out. Makes sense for a car this age. It's on my to-do list but replacing the RCA's made a huge difference. Cheers